English Is Not The Only Language In Texas!

  As we know America as a whole is an immigrant country actually since the beginning its been like this. Now the U.S ranks highest with around a million immigrants moving here.In Texas it is estimated that 1.68 million immigrants live in the state. After California, Texas has the second highest number of undocumented immigrants who reside here. Leading to a much greater population in the states, this is causing a rise in the language spoken at home. According to a Texas Tribune article titled As Texas Grows, More Languages are Spoken at Home Spanish is the number one secondary language spoken, with 6,983,380 people. Of the nearly 24 million people in Texas five years or older, 65 percent speak only English at home. The rest speak more than 160 languages combined. Latin American immigrants rank highest in Texas but recently the share of Asian immigrants has doubled from 17.3 percent in 2005 to 40.4 percent  in 2013.

     Bexar, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Travis are some of the largest populated counties in Texas where we see a change of language over the years. Bexar County has the largest share of residents who speak Spanish at home, while Tarrant and Travis counties have the smallest shares. Catherine Bingaman the church director of ESL education states, "People tend to think when we say ESL class, ‘Oh, you have people from Mexico,’” but Spanish-speakers only make up a fourth of the students". Meaning that Mexicans are not the only immigrants as most people think. There's people from Europe, Asia and the Middle East who come across many barriers to live in what they call a dream nation. Seeking for freedoms and rights all humans deserve.
     This is why I believe that Texas should support bilingual education around the state. It is never bad to be able to speak a foreign language and knowing two of the most popular languages would be ideal. According to Psychology Today over the years there's been a drastic change in bilingualism. As president Obama stated "You should be thinking about .... how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language".
     In conclusion as Texas keeps growing so does the culture that we have. More and more languages are being spoken at home as well as in schools, banks, and other public places. Even to the extend that in many jobs they require bilingual potential employees. In this case with language and communication we see that it is essential in some places to know Spanish and English because of the rise of speakers in the state. A diverse state is the way to go and thus far it is heading that way.